Potential Paradise
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: What if you had a relative from the past that you knew nothing about? What if they knew of you before you even took your first breath or was even thought of? What if they left something you could use to help the people around you live better if you had the opportunity? Enter the manga world and Shinji Ikari, who's about to inherit a literal paradise.
1. Prologue

Creation began on 10-10-15

Creation ended on 10-11-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise

A/N: What would you do if you were offered a place that was a virtual paradise?

"Sir, I've gone over the last will and testaments of the ancestors of the eight families," went a young man to an elderly man that was writing his signatures on several papers, "and there's one that you should look into."

The elder looked up at the younger man.

"Go on," he instructed him.

The younger man handed him a document and expressed, "This is the last will and testament of the ancestress Senkensha Ikari."

"The woman people claimed could see into the future?"

"That very same woman. She had foreseen that she would be survived by descendant in need of a reprieve from the madness of the present-day world he would be in, and left what she had obtained over her life to him."

"Him?"

"A boy named Shinji Ikari."

"Okay. Where will we find him so he can be informed of his inheritance?"

"A place called Tokyo-3, Japan."

The elder then looked up at him again and realized that they would have to travel a long way to insure that this man received his inheritance. As he resumed his examination of the last will and testament, he discovered that this Shinji Ikari was Senkensha's great-great-great-great-great-grandson.

Yes, they would be in for quite a long trip.

"And she really left this to him?" He asked the young man.

"It was written in her will that he would inherit from her everything she had acquired in her life," he answered him.

"It's…quite a massive piece of property…and hasn't been inhabited for…almost a millennium."

"It's been perfectly preserved ever since she passed away."

"Very well, then. Let's go inform this young man that he just inherited something that people can only dream of having."

-x-

Sometimes, Shinji wished the classroom teacher would run his mouth about more than just what happened after the Second Impact. He had heard it more than once, and it was irritating to hear it again, even when he was trying to tune it out by looking out the window at the city beyond the school. It had been quite a while since the last Angel attack, and he was hoping he wouldn't have to face another Angel that was as destructive as the one that tried to detonate over the city.

Ding. He looked at his computer and found an instant message from Kensuke. It read, _"You wanna head to the arcade with Toji and I after school?"_

He typed back, _"Sure."_

Suddenly, the school alarms went off, ending the teacher's lecture.

"Attention, everyone," went a female voice over the loudspeakers. "Due to a city-wide state of emergency, we shall be ending all classes immediately. We ask that you gather your belongings and vacate in an orderly fashion."

The students then gathered their belongings and immediately vacated the classroom. Whatever the city-wide state of emergency was, it had saved them from the continued verbal torment of the teacher's Second Impact lecture.

But what caught Shinji's attention about this evacuation of the school was that he wasn't called on his cell phone from NERV about a potential Angel attack. If it was that, he would've received a call from someone at the Geo-Front.

-x-

"…What exactly is going on?" Misato asked the bridge in Central Dogma, as several of the monitoring equipment wasn't working as well as it should've been.

"We're not sure," went Hyuga to her. "We're picking up a strange signal that isn't local."

"Is it an Angel?" Ritsuko asked.

"No blue pattern has been detected," Maya revealed; the MAGI hadn't detected any indication that an Angel was present or approaching the city.

"One of the satellites is picking up something coming from beyond the moon," went Shigeru, and the holographic monitors all displayed the same thing, which seemed like something out of a movie. "What in the name of…"

Something massive was slowly approaching the planet from the darkness of space.

"Is that…some sort of satellite?" Fuyutsuki questioned.

"There isn't a satellite in existence that's that massive," expressed Ritsuko.

As the object came closer, more of its features became visible. It looked two large rings had been fused together around three smaller rings which seemed to center around a small sphere. The exterior of this object appeared to be mechanical, but there were certain areas that appeared to be organic. Size-wise, this thing was so massive that there was no doubt that the very Earth could fit right where the sphere was located.

Soon enough, the bridge crew saw something small approaching the planet. It looked like some sort of plane or shuttle.

"Aliens?" Hyuga asked.

-x-

People were worried. They could see something extremely massive in the sky, but due to the atmosphere of the planet, it was obscured.

As Shinji, Rei and Asuka headed to the Geo-Front, the Third Child was wondering if this was some sort of Angel attack strategy. If this was a new type of Angel, then it was greater than the last one they fought. He had to assume that there was no way that any of the Evas could handle something this extreme, even if they tried.

Within a minute, a strange ship appeared in the sky, hovering over the city skyscrapers.

-x-

"We're getting a message," one of the lesser female technicians informed the rest of Central Dogma. "It appears to be being picked up…everyone with the means to pick it up."

"You're saying everyone's picking this message?" Ritsuko asked.

"It's even showing up on my phone," said Maya, revealing her iPhone had picked up the same message. "Oh, my God."

Misato took out her phone and found the message to be quite a surprise.

" _We apologize for whatever fear you're feeling from our presence. We seek the audience of one Shinji Ikari. Again, we apologize for whatever fear that you are feeling from our presence."_

"Somebody's looking for the Third Child?" Shigeru questioned.

"Who would be looking for him?" Another male technician questioned.

-x-

"…Who the heck would be looking for you, stupid?" Asuka asked Shinji, as if he knew anything about this message that was appearing on their phones and on the monitors adorning the buildings in the city.

"It is unlikely that Ikari would know anything about the identity of this person or people that are looking for him," went Rei, using logic.

As they reached the Geo-Front, they met with Misato, Ritsuko, Fuyutsuki and Gendo on the bridge.

"Did you three get the same message that's been appearing on every monitor?" Misato asked them.

"Whoever they are, they're apologizing for the fear that they're causing just by being present," said Shinji to her. "Is someone really looking for me?"

"How many Shinji Ikaris are there in the world?" Asuka asked.

"Only one," went Rei, once again being logical.

"Who'd be looking for you?" Ritsuko wondered.

Suddenly, the message was added upon by a picture of the Third Child and more words.

" _We seek an audience with this young man. It is imperative that we speak with him."_ The message read under his picture.

"That is one ugly photo of you, Third Child," Asuka expressed.

"Whoever these people are, they have you on the mind," added Ritsuko.

Shinji considered responding to this message, but then his father spoke up.

"We need to consider the possibility that these people, whoever they are, are a threat," Gendo uttered.

"Judging from the message, they don't seem to be a threat, Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, even though they were only being informed through a message.

Shinji, out of curiosity, texted on his phone, _"Why do you want to see Shinji Ikari?"_

"What do you think you're doing, stupid?!" Asuka yelled at him; she had seen him texting on his phone and sending a question to whoever was sending this message. "We don't even know who these people are, and you're sending them a message?!"

Before anyone could say anything about what Shinji had done, a response had been received.

" _He is the sole beneficiary in his ancestress' last will and testament."_ The response message read.

"Say what?!" Asuka gasped.

Shinji found this to be quite a surprise. Someone from his family's past had left him something, which he found impossible, since he hadn't been around to be included in any will.

-x-

"We have his location, sir," went a man to another man aboard the ship that had towed the property towards the planet Earth. "Several meters underneath a spherical location under this Tokyo-3, Japan. Permission to establish holographic interaction."

"Permission granted," the other man responded.

-x-

Central Dogma's holographic equipment was suddenly hacked, and a man with blue hair and golden eyes appeared in front of the bridge crew.

"Shinji Ikari," he uttered, pointing towards the young man. "We have come a long way for you."

"Identify yourself," Gendo ordered the man.

He looked towards Gendo and responded, "Dove of the Ancestral Heritage Unit."

"Ancestral Heritage Unit?" Misato and Ritsuko questioned.

"We go over the last will and testaments of ancestral individuals of varying degrees of influence," this man, Dove, explained. "Shinji Ikari, by order of my superiors, I have been instructed to deliver to you the essential elements of your ancestress' will."

"Who is my ancestress?" Shinji asked him.

"Senkensha Ikari, who passed away over a millennium ago."

"I was never informed of her. I don't know her."

"It wouldn't be a surprise. She did pass away over a millennium ago. Still, she left everything she had obtained over her years to you and you alone."

-x-

After being given a specific instruction on where they could meet, Shinji went to the park…where he, and the security detail that followed him, met with the actual Dove of the AHU.

"My father and Misato almost wouldn't let me come here," he confessed to the man.

"I honestly can't imagine why. You're about to inherit everything your great-great-great-great-great-grandmother had ever obtained in her life."

"They suspect that you're some sort of threat, despite your apologies for exciting fear in people."

"If we were a threat, we would've did something that caused massive harm. But that isn't our job. Ours is to find those related to people associated to the last will and testaments of deceased ancestors."

The man then took out a device that resembled a hardback book made of metal and glass with an outline of a right hand atop of it.

"Please, place your right on the outline to begin transfer of inheritance, sir," Dove instructed him.

Shinji then raised his right hand up…and onto the outline. It glowed bright green and yellow, and Shinji had felt like he was pressing palms with someone else's hand. When the glowing ceased, Dove had him remove his hand.

"And with that, everything your ancestress owned is now your property," he told Shinji.

"I, uh… What did I inherit from her, exactly?" Shinji asked, curious.

"The primary portion of your inheritance includes her Bio-Tech Sphere Station, a self-sustaining space station of sorts created from a salvaged planet similar to this one, but on a larger scale. About eight times the size of this solar system's largest planet. Additional inheritances include a legion of androids that have kept the place in good condition, her elixir collection, and her dagger collection among other possessions. I would say that you hit the paradise jackpot, young man. I hope that you do enjoy your inheritance as you explore them. Also, enclosed is a holographic video message from your ancestress."

-x-

"You're kidding, right?" Ritsuko asked, just as Misato and Asuka and Fuyutsuki were trying to make sense of the fact that Shinji had inherited a colossal space station that made the Earth look like a marble in comparison because it had been, supposedly, created from an Earth-like world that was eight times the size of Jupiter.

"It seems like a dream, except it's too crazy to disbelieve," went Fuyutsuki, as he was examining several pictures taken by the satellites of the space station Shinji had just inherited from his ancestress, pondering just what sort of technology could be used to transform planets into space stations.

"Whoever this Senkensha Ikari was, she must've been crazy to leave him something as big as that," Asuka expressed her opinion; honestly, she was just jealous that Shinji had gotten something that seemed wasted on the likes of him.

"Whether she was crazy or not, she left it all to Shinji, who's the only person with a right to all that she had in her life," uttered Misato.

"Where is he now?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"My apartment right now. He may be considering going to his new space station after being informed that it's a habitable environment."

"Could he consider leaving us to live there?" Ritsuko suggested.

"Commander Ikari may not allow him to," Fuyutsuki expressed.

"He is bound to have no say in what he can or can't do with his space station after being informed that it was left to his son."

-x-

"What is the meaning of this, Ikari?!" SEELE 01 asked Gendo during the meeting concerning the global message that was directed to find the Third Child in order to give him a n inheritance left to him by a long-deceased relative. "This wasn't mentioned, whatsoever, in the Dead Sea Scrolls!"

"This seems to have nothing to do with the Dead Sea Scrolls," Gendo tried to explain, but even he was confused by everything that had happened.

"Will this have any impact of the Third Child's reliability?" SEELE 10 questioned, which was what had many of the members of the council concerned.

"We're not sure at the moment," Gendo answered.

"If this space station is truly his, he has no reason to consider staying affiliated with NERV," went SEELE 04. "He may consider transferring to the space station…if it means to escape the conflict with the Angels. Such a place would be viewed as a haven away from the Angels."

"If he were to be convinced to permit people to be transported to it," added SEELE 08; if this station was habitable, it would be quite a reliable environment to thrive on.

"What of the Instrumentality Project? Will this…inheritance of the Third Child's interfere with the project in any way?" SEELE 01 questioned.

"It may not," Gendo suspected.

-x-

In his room in Misato's apartment, he was looking at the video message he was left by his ancestress that left him all that she had. Appearance-wise, Senkensha Ikari looked like a female version of an adult Shinji with silver eyes and her ebony hair in the form of dreadlocks and a ponytail, dressed in a red and gold yukata.

"Hello, Shinji, dearest," she had started. "I can only imagine that you're a confused, young man, wondering why I left you such a massive inheritance. Why you, of all people, should be the one in the family to inherit a space station I had made from a planet that isn't so different from the one you're on. But don't worry, you're not an alien's descendant or anything. I'm as human as you are. But I'll get to the point of this recording. I could see generations into the future of my descendants. And I saw you. You're never informed of things that are kept from you, you're deliberately placed in danger, forced to face enemies you don't truly understand. I don't want this sort of life for you, Shinji. So I left everything I had to you in the hopes you can escape this dark spot in your present-day life, even help the people of the Earth by giving them a taste of paradise. I know you'll be able to make the right choices and turn your life around if you're given a bit more independence from those around. My only regret is that I never got to meet you personally. I'm sure that you're a very gentle soul that hates the mere idea of harming another person. I know I do. I would keep a dagger on my person in the hopes that I would never have to use it. Should you ever have a girlfriend in your life, you should view such a belief as the same principle as what people refer to as protection, and that you should always have one and have no need for it than to need one and not have it. I hope to meet you one day…in another life."

The recording ended…and Shinji himself wished he had met her himself in life.

Still, much of what had transpired today was a lot to process right now. Most of which seemed like something out of a science fiction film. Advanced and ancient civilizations, people from forgotten points in history, and then, there were the Angels that, seemingly, threatened mankind. And his ancestress letting him know that he could possibly help people by using her space station.

 _It is bigger than the very planet itself,_ he thought, looking away from the small, tablet-like device that had contained his grandmother's holographic recordings…and at his NERV-issued cell phone, often the very phone that rarely rang with calls or messages from anyone that had anything that wasn't work-related to say to him.

-x-

A week had passed by, and the Earth found itself having to look at a constant eyesore in the sky because of the Bio-Tech Sphere Station. Along the global scientific community that developed an interest in it, some found themselves wanting to travel up to the place and study its functions, but were forced to remind themselves that some fourteen-year-old boy had been left the colossal construct by a dead woman. To do so would seem to require permission from the very child that now owned it.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo-3, Shinji now found himself having to hide in Misato's apartment due to reporters and paparazzi wanting to know just how it was that he came to own such an inheritance that even his father had no knowledge of.

Misato, sympathizing with the boy's avoidance of the people, had to disconnect the phones just to be able to sleep at night.

Asuka, on the other hand, wished that it was her that was being asked by the reporters about the Eva, which should've mattered more than some space station that people could live on.

In his room, Shinji had taken a risk and called Toji's phone.

"This is Toji Suzuhara," went the voice of the school jock on the other end of the call.

"Toji, it's Shinji," he greeted the jock.

"Hey, man, what's up?"

"I am not enjoying this unwanted attention."

"I honestly didn't expect you would be. Even Kensuke has had a hard time trying to get in touch with you. I just left the hospital to see my sister."

"How is she?"

"Still the same. The doctors keep saying she's making progress, but then something happens that causes her to get worse."

Shinji felt sorry for the jock's sister and her injuries that kept her in the hospital. If there was anything he could have done to help the little girl, he would've…

"Say, Toji," he spoke up, "would your family be interested in something nice?"

"Like what, exactly?"

"Living at a space station bigger than the planet."

-x-

"Satellite imagery shows that the place has buildings and other urban areas scattered around its surface," Ritsuko revealed to Gendo. "Forests, mountains, oceans, tundras, even animal life identical to the animal life here."

"Several of the personnel are beginning to question if anyone, including the Third Child, will be transferring there," Gendo expressed; he had yet to speak with Shinji about his inheritance, mostly about wanting to transfer it to NERV as research property. "Are we anywhere on the Dummy System?"

"We've been delayed due to the presence of the station just floating so close to the planet."

-x-

"…He asked if we'd be interested in living at his space station," Toji told his father the next day, having spoken about the idea to his sister.

"I still find it hard to believe that someone like this Ikari fellow was left a giant space station," Mr. Suzuhara told his only son. "Even so, why would he give such an offer? It's not like the Earth is dying."

"Maybe he just wants people to be happy. Maybe that place is like the one they showed in that American film, where it seems like everything is perfect…except for the governing authority. But Shinji would be the only person governing it. He'd be the one in charge, able to decide much of whatever he chooses, and maybe he feels it's his own way of atoning for his lack of skills against the first Angel that attacked the city when Sakura was injured."

"I thought he had gotten over that day."

"He's a complicated person…and a very sensitive guy."

-x-

It wasn't until two days later, when the reporters and paparazzi had stopped when they realized that Shinji wasn't going to divulge anything to the media, that said boy was finally able to return to school and go on about his business. Unfortunately, that didn't save him from the gossiping from the girls or the constant messages he got on his computer during the teacher's boring details about the Second Impact aftermath. The only person that hadn't been giving a hard time, excluding Toji and Kensuke, was Rei, who seemed indifferent to the mild madness.

As the bluenette continuously stared out the classroom window, Shinji recalled the girl's apartment…and how gloomy it seemed.

 _It couldn't hurt to ask her,_ he thought, deciding to talk to her at lunch.

To be continued…


	2. Relocation

Creation began on 10-11-15

Creation ended on 11-23-15

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise: Relocation

"We should talk to the Third Child about this?" Ritsuko told Misato during lunch.

"As much as I would want to ask him about it, I wouldn't try to pressure him into speaking about it," Misato told her back. "I'm still edgy about putting back up the phone at home."

"But what's the point of having a habitable space station if you're not going to use it?"

"It's his, so he can decide what to do with it."

"Commander Ikari may have something against that, as he feels he should've been in the loop."

"He didn't even know about this Senkensha Ikari relative of his on his wife's side."

"People will likely beg the boy just to live on that thing."

"You getting tempted?"

"I would do so for scientific purposes."

"You need a vacation, Rits."

-x-

Although he hadn't gone up to his space station yet, Shinji had gone through the virtual simulation of it, and found the place to be quite the word that he had just discovered: Heavenly. It was the only word he could use to describe what the place was, what it had for environments. The virtual walk around showed him several mountains, lakes and forests, animals identical to the ones that were wiped out because of Second Impact, and levels of mansions and other buildings scattered around the station, creating the wondrous realm that it was.

"Hey, Shinji," went Toji during the lunch period at school.

"Hey, Toji," he responded, removing his visor to look up at the jock.

"I spoke with my dad about that offer of yours…and he wants to take it while it's still on the table."

"Really?"

"Really."

That put a smile of Shinji's face, and he hoped he would feel the same way when he spoke to Rei.

Meanwhile, Asuka was speaking with Hikari.

"I'm surprised that he hasn't been jumped yet by any of the students," she told Hikari.

"Asuka, why not just ask Shinji if he'll consider letting you live up on his space station?" Hikari asked her. "I'm sure he'll allow it."

"No way. He'd probably crash it into the planet."

That's when Hikari decided to speak her honest opinion about what had happened.

"If he offered me and my family the opportunity to live up there," she started, "I'd take it in a heartbeat. It must be a paradise up there if it's so massive."

Asuka was surprised by this utterance from her friend. She had hoped Hikari would at least agree with her that such a place was wasted upon Shinji.

-x-

"…So, I…uh…the reason I ask is that you could consider living up there," said Shinji to Rei later in the day. "You seem like a person in need of a nicer setting. You don't have to answer right now, but at least think about it."

Rei didn't say much after that offer of Shinji's, but nodded her head that she would think it over.

"Great. Thank you for hearing me out."

As Shinji walked up ahead to the base, the albino girl pondered the offer Shinji had made for her to live up on his space station he inherited from an ancestress that left it all to him. Beyond her small relationship with the boy, and her relationship with Commander Ikari, who was very adamant against his son possessing a space station that was greater than the planet itself, there wasn't much she was ever offered like this had been. While her apartment had all that she really needed to live on, there were times where it got noisy…and the darkness that crept everywhere.

 _Should I inform Commander Ikari?_ She wondered. _What would he say about the offer?_

-x-

"…I can't believe the teacher asked that baka if he could live on the space station!" Asuka vented her frustration. "Always droning on and on about Second Impact, and then he goes and expresses his desire to live off the Earth! What is wrong with everyone today?!"

Misato, who didn't say much during the walk down the hall with the redhead, sighed as she herself had been hearing the same around the base from many of the personnel, most of whom felt relocating to the space station would help to save them from the Angels.

"And then Hikari says that if he offered her family the opportunity to live up there, she'd take it without a second's hesitation. Her of all people."

"I would ask him only once," they both heard Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki from further down the hall, speaking to a pair of technicians, "and then drop the subject if he declined."

"Most of the staff just want to go up and see what it's like," the woman had expressed. "I'd pay him if he let me live up with my sister and father."

"I'd give up my entire baseball card collection if he let me live up there," the man added in.

"They can't possibly be serious," went Asuka, getting ticked off with every passing minute about Shinji's stupid space station.

-x-

Within the Entry Plugs, the pilots were undergoing synchronization testing…and so far, Shinji's ratio was lower than the previous test.

"He's at forty percent," went Maya to Ritsuko.

"Figures," said Misato; she suspected that this was because everyone was giving Shinji a hard time over the space station.

Within her plug, Rei had replayed the conversation between herself and Commander, having decided to speak to him about a variation of her conversation with Shinji.

" _Pilot Ikari was speaking to one of the students about the space station, and had offered the boy and his family the opportunity to live on it. What were to happen if he kept offering for people to live there?"_ She had said to him; while it wasn't a complete lie, it wasn't a complete truth, either.

" _It is an irrelevant matter,"_ Gendo had told her. _"NERV will make preparations to have the Third Child transfer ownership of the space station."_

This, of course, made Rei curious; she didn't suspect that NERV (and by NERV, she really meant Commander Ikari) would want to claim the space station that was left to the Third Child. If anything, this was only because Commander Ikari wanted it for himself. But she didn't voice this belief.

" _And…should he refuse?"_ She asked him.

" _He'll have no choice,"_ he answered back.

This made Rei curious as to what Shinji might do if he were to discover that his father wanted him to relinquish his ownership of the space station. As she was able to figure out by means of the information superhighway, anyone that inherited something from someone else, ranging from an estate to even a simple business, could often be sought after and pressured into relinquishment by someone else, feeling that they can't handle the inheritance or will squander it away. If this much was accurate, then it was likely that Commander Ikari believed that Shinji inheriting anything from this distant relative on his mother's side of the family was a mistake, and that he himself should have a claim to what was given to the Third Child.

But in the plug of the Second Child, Asuka found any thoughts about Shinji and his space station to be a complete bore, since even Hikari had expressed a mild desire to live on it. She felt a minor sense of betrayal because of this revelation, and wanted everyone to shut up about it.

-x-

"…I need a cold drink," sighed Shinji, as he tied his shoes and closed his locker.

He had to run into the men's locker to avoid being hassled by the men out in the hall, pleading, begging him to let them live on his space station. Stepping in front of the door to leave the locker room, the boy stood in front of the last person he expected to see today: His father.

Gendo, looking as cold and emotionless as he always did, but possessing a particular coldness towards his son, came to see him to address the matter of his space station.

"Yes?" Shinji asked him.

"You need to relinquish ownership of the space station to NERV," he expressed simply, making no effort to hide his contempt.

"Why?"

"You cannot be burdened with such an advanced piece of technology."

Somehow, Shinji suspected that there was more to what his father was saying. Ever since he came to Tokyo-3, there has been no words of kindness from his father, no praise, no attempts at having even a simple lunch together. No, ever since they met that day the Third Angel attacked, it was all viewed as business and his son was viewed as nothing but a pilot, never a person, never his son.

"No," he told his father. "I will not hand over my inheritance to NERV."

"It would be easier if it was done this way to avoid a further fiasco like what happened when it was brought here." Gendo told him.

"Easier for who? Me…or you?"

Gendo didn't answer that question, and so Shinji simply walked away. But he stopped momentarily to express himself to his father.

"She told me, posthumously, that I could probably save people," he told his father. "She was totally right about my present-day life, that I'm kept in the dark, that I'm placed in danger, forced to face enemies I don't understand. She didn't want me to live this type of life, and I don't want that life, either. And every day, I have to listen to the teacher drone on and on about what Second Impact did to the planet and how many people died. Even today, though what I didn't expect was to hear him ask me if he could live on the space station. People even offering me things I can't even think of wanting. I keep thinking about it, though, helping the people by doing something better than piloting the Eva, something that doesn't hurt anyone."

"That's a foolish belief," Gendo told him. "People will always hurt one another."

"That's your belief. Your belief…and it's not the only belief there is in existence, you know. If the Angels are doing the things they do because they want the Earth, then maybe it's a good idea to relocate. I mean, there's a place that's just like the Earth, only bigger and like something out of a science-fiction film. And if it keeps the people out of harm's way, then it's better this way."

"No, it's better to use the Evas to defeat the Angels. To do that, NERV needs pilots to move the Evas."

"And risk more people getting hurt?"

"This is war, and people die every day."

"It doesn't always have to be a war!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"You're right, I wouldn't. I wouldn't understand…because nobody tells me everything. I know you don't. You always have secrets, reasons to keep people in the dark. Except, perhaps, you don't know that secrets have a cost. They always have a cost. They're not for free. Not then, not ever. You know something, this conversation's moot. Talking to you doesn't change anything."

And so Shinji walked on.

"You either relinquish the space station to NERV, or you'll be placed in the brig, Third Child!" Gendo threatened him, but Shinji kept walking away, unafraid of him.

-x-

"…So, I heard you and your father had a little chat earlier today, Shinji," Misato said to the boy during dinner.

"It wasn't really a chat," he told her. "He wanted me to hand over my inheritance to NERV, threatened to throw me in the brig if I didn't."

"That thing up in space is going to get you in trouble," went Asuka.

"The only trouble I currently have is my father."

"Because he wants your space station all for himself."

Shinji didn't say anything about what the redhead had expressed, but his face hid nothing of his resentment towards the possibility.

"Asuka, maybe now isn't the time to talk about it," Misato suggested.

But then Shinji uttered, "Would you like to live up there, Asuka?"

"What?" The redhead questioned.

"My space station. Would you like to live up there? I've already asked Toji and Rei, so I might as well ask you. I'm conflicted when it comes to asking my father if he would want to live on it, but I see no reason to even try. He's impossible to put up with."

He then got up and went to his room.

-x-

"…So, he refused to hand it over," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo. "It was his choice."

"His refusal will hinder the scenario," Gendo grunted, frustrated by his son's unwillingness to relinquish his space station.

"Maybe he would reconsider…if we were to tell him the truth," Fuyutsuki suggested.

"If he knew the truth, he'd refused to continue piloting the Eva."

Fuyutsuki couldn't deny that possibility, but it would've brought some clarity to the boy's mind on his mother's passing. However, even emotional clarity could be the same as emotional calamity.

-x-

"Stupid!" Shinji grunted, angry at both Asuka and his father. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!"

In his room, he made a decision to get away from it all. He really needed to get away from the frustration and stress caused by both of them. And getting away also meant getting away from the Eva, and the Angels. He could've viewed it as the perfect getaway, one that didn't need to end unless he decided it would himself.

Reading what ways to get to the space station were available to him and others, he discovered that the colossal structure had at least two-thousand transport vessels that could hold five-thousand people each and that it possessed the means to teleport people that had been registered into its internal DNA database that was, despite being ancient in terms of chronology, quite advanced enough to put current technology to pasture, including the MAGI. And since he had inherited the station, his DNA had been the first in centuries to be added as a new citizen.

Stepping out when Asuka and Misato were out of the kitchen, Shinji left the apartment and went to the roof of the building. He had opted for the teleportation method so as to avoid further discord to the city. Once he was on the roof, he saw the materializing platform needed to engage teleportation. Standing on the device, he felt the process of teleportation begin.

It was like he was fading away from existence, all his skin, muscles and bones atomizing. The strangest thing of it was that the teleporting didn't hurt him like he had expected it to. He didn't scream or anything, but the mere thought of suffering from being broken down and scattered was scary enough. No white light or angels anywhere for him.

In the span of an instant, Shinji was no longer on the rooftop of the apartment building…and inside a large room that looked as though it had been around for several decades and was made with oak, redwood and elder, adorned with figurines and small pictures. It was some kind of study or trophy room. Quite possibly associated to the boy's ancestress.

"Hello?" He called out, but then recalled that he was the only person actually on the space station at the moment. _It seems so lonely here._

"Can we be of assistance to you, Shinji Ikari?" He heard a male voice behind him, and turned to find a robot that he was certain wasn't there in the room before.

The robot was humanoid, standing about six feet tall, wearing bronze-colored, cybernetic armor, and had glowing, emerald eyes.

"Who…who are you?" Shinji asked it.

"Assistance Droid Unit-18," it revealed. "A minor scan of your body indicates you would request for air conditioning."

Before Shinji could say something, a calm breeze entered the room.

"Thank you," he praised the droid. "Is there a bedroom around here?"

"Yes. Follow me, please."

-x-

"… And you're sure you didn't see him leave?" One of the Section Two agents asked Asuka after she and Misato discovered that the boy they lived with wasn't in the apartment with them.

"Positive," Asuka told him. "I didn't even know he was gone until I got up this morning."

With her side of the story and Misato's side, the agents were left to consider one other possibility, and that was the Third Child had likely left to his space station.

-x-

It was such a beautiful garden, with large trees of oak and holly, flower shrubs of dandelions, sunflowers and violets, and a large fountain in the shape of a Taoist symbol. It felt like one of those places that shouldn't have existed, anymore, but did in places people weren't meant to be in. And for Shinji, who was laying on the grass, looking at the sky above him, it was like he had gone to Heaven while still alive. It was so quiet, with even the small birds flying around, tweeting with their blissful ignorance of the world around them, and a complete lack of cicadas like in Japan.

-x-

"…I can't believe he just up and left like that," went Asuka, infuriated that Shinji would just go to his space station and not tell anyone.

"Well, considering that there have been people giving him a hard time, I don't blame him," said Misato to her, as they were driving down to NERV. "We practically forced him to go there."

"You tried calling him?"

"He left his phone when he left. I guess he didn't want anyone disturbing him."

Ring! A phone started ringing in the car; Misato had brought Shinji's phone with them in case someone did call.

"Wait a minute, didn't you say that he hardly ever receives calls?" Asuka asked her, as she took out the device. "His own father won't even call him."

Misato opened up the phone and spoke to whoever it was that was calling.

She would soon wish she hadn't answered the call at all.

To be continued…

A/N: Sorry to leave you with this cliffhanger. Who do you think was calling Shinji's phone? Remember, this is set in the manga universe.


	3. Issues

Creation began on 11-23-15

Creation ended on 01-05-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise: Issues

Asuka guessed that she could probably understand Shinji's detachment from his family now. It wasn't just his father that seemed to be a complete sociopath, but the very people on his mother's side that were full of themselves, as well. Towards the end of the ride to NERV, with the cell phone's loudspeaker on, both she and Misato heard the most foulest of words from Shinji's uncle, wanting to know why and how his nephew got a space station in his name from a relative they didn't know about. And the worst of it was that he felt that his family (he, his wife and kid) deserved it more than Shinji didn't, since they took him in when his father dumped him at their home.

And she thought her family was awful. It was no wonder the boy seemed the way he did.

-x-

"…Her sister's husband called his phone," Fuyutsuki informed Gendo. "It was probably a good thing he wasn't around to hear what they thought of him."

"What they think is irrelevant," Gendo responded to the revelation of his in-laws' resentment of the Third Child's inheriting a space station that people could actually live on.

-x-

It was like he was on Earth, but he wasn't on Earth. There was a sky, generated by powerful, atmosphere processors, creating actual skies and allowing for the space station to simulate actual weather patterns that were acceptable to the passage of the seasons. Everything else, the ground, the trees, the flowers and the water were as tangible as his feelings of release from the chains of NERV. But the longer he relaxed, the more he thought about Toji and his sister, Ayanami and the people that could be helped by relocating them to the space station for a better life, free from the conflict between NERV and the Angels.

 _I gotta get them here,_ he thought, and got up off the soft grass.

Returning to the large mansion that was where his ancestress had once resided, he sat down in front of a table that, similar to an Apple device with a touch screen integrated in it, showed him a geographical map of Japan and the region in which Tokyo-3 resided. But unlike such devices, this geographical map was constantly updating itself based off the present day. He could see people stepping outside their buildings and wandering around the streets, among other things happening in the city. And by typing in the name of people he wanted to find, he was shown their current location within the city, finding Toji and Ayanami at the school.

 _Incredible,_ he thought, wondering if this was an example of the belief that the gods were all-seeing and all-knowing over people.

He was also getting information on every soul on the planet that was registered in every database, from every country, telling him just how many people there were and separating them by their backgrounds, whether they had a record or not, ethnicity, etc. It was like the space station had an army of supercomputers that were greater than that of the MAGI themselves, except they were much older. And these people were separated into those that should be here on the space station…and who should remain on the Earth. Unfortunately, despite his mild dislike of her, Asuka was considered one of the people that should be allowed onto the station.

"At least it's her and not my father," he told himself. "Less than a billion people on the Earth…and only more than three-quarters of them don't have life sentences or criminal records or are prejudice against people. I guess the best way to start with anything…is to start at where home used to be."

-x-

"Three objects just detached from the space station, Dr. Akagi," Shigeru informed the faux-blond woman in Central Dogma, unable to see just what had separated from said station because of the satellite's distance from it. "They're approaching the atmosphere."

"Can you tell where they're heading?" Ritsuko asked.

"They're approaching Japan."

As the three objects got closer to the planet's surface, the satellite they were using was able to get a better picture of them. They looked like large, semi-roundish, semi-squarish vessels that looked about the size of a large city, with small, curved wings that looked like fish fins. Their coloring varied between green, blue and gray.

"It looks like Shinji's trying to be the people's savior," went Hyuga, "but in a different way."

"Maybe, but I doubt he'd want to save everyone," went Asuka in the large room. "His own relatives, at least. I can't picture him wanting anything to do with them."

"This is absurd," everyone heard the voice of Gendo Ikari as he stepped into the chamber. "What does he think he's doing?"

-x-

Some of the Tokyo-3 citizens were trying not to panic like before whenever an Angel attacked, but the sight of a large aircraft wasn't something you saw everyday. Even the police were baffled by what was going on.

"Are we being attacked, Daddy?" A little girl asked her father.

"I'm not sure," he responded.

A part of the aircraft separated from its underside and floated down further to the city, splitting into several more pieces. One such piece landed in the schoolyard of Tokyo-3 First Municipal Middle School, surprising the students. Atop it was a pair of androids that stepped off the platform-like structure, looking at the students in the windows. They then started beeping, and the students' computers and cell phones started acting up.

Each student and teacher that received a message that read, _"To escape the conflicts of war and premature death, you must sometimes relocate. You've been invited to live on the Bio-Tech Sphere Station. Whether you decide to relocate or not is entirely up to you."_

"Shinji's inviting the people to live on his space station!" A girl shouted from within the student body.

"I'm getting my things and getting out of this place!" The teacher that kept droning about the Second Impact expressed, grabbing his cane and walking out of the classroom as fast as his legs would take him, into the hall.

Hikari wanted to maintain order within the classroom as the other students gathered their things and stepped out, but she was unable to stop them and did what she could've done at a time like this: Go with the flow, since she had also received the message from her phone and computer.

-x-

"…Somehow, only some of the people have received the invitation," went Shigeru, who himself was one the recipients of the invite within the Geo-Front. "It looks like Shinji evaluated the entire planet's population before he sent these ships down here."

"He evaluated everyone?" Ritsuko questioned, wondering how this was possible, since this was something that even her MAGI barely had the capacity or authority to perform.

"He must have some really powerful supercomputers on that space station," went Maya, who had also received an invite to live on the space station.

"Old and powerful," added Fuyutsuki, who had also been invited.

This didn't sit too well for Gendo, who felt his scenario was threatened by the Third Child performing such an action that would hinder the Instrumentality Project.

"We need to establish contact with the Third Child," he ordered.

-x-

Shinji saw as Toji and his sister, who still looked like she needed to be in the hospital, board one of the platforms with their relatives after taking what they could, among the others that got the messages that invited them.

Through one of the androids near them, he was able to hear the little girl a simple question.

"Is your friend really helping the people by moving them to this space station that he had inherited from a relative?" She asked Toji.

"That's pretty much the way it seems, Sakura," her brother told her. "Are you excited?"

"Yes, and happy to be out of the hospital."

The sight of the little girl's bandaged arm and leg didn't put a smile on Shinji's face, but he was reminded of the wondrous benefits people would be afforded up here that they couldn't have down there that would've put the need for a hospital to pasture.

"Good people, good lives," he sighed, and saw through the hacked cameras the bridge of Central Dogma, where some of the people there were starting to leave, since they received the invitation to relocate. "Bad people, bad problems."

"…We need to establish contact with the Third Child," he heard his father say on the bridge, and got an idea on what to do next.

-x-

Misato's cell phone received a new text, and it was one she found to be impossible.

"Shinji's texting me," she revealed.

"But he doesn't have his phone," went Ritsuko. "How is that possible?"

"What the… My console's been hacked!" Hyuga gasped.

"Mine, too," added Shigeru.

"Same here," declared Ibuki.

Suddenly, the holographic systems in front of them ceased displaying what they normally displayed…and showed a text message from Shinji himself.

"YOU WANTED TO TALK TO ME?"The text read.

Misato texted back, "Shinji, what are you doing?"

The holographic text message was then replaced with a new one that read, "I'M DOING WHAT THE EVA COULDN'T DO, WHICH IS HELPING THE PEOPLE. NOBODY HAS TO SUFFER IN TOKYO-3 OR ELSEWHERE BY RELOCATING HERE."

"But you're causing pandemonium by doing this," Misato texted.

"IT'S NOT PANDEMONIUM IF THE EVALUATED ALL RECEIVED THE SAME INVITATION."

Misato found herself unable to respond to that. Maybe because she knew he was right.

Asuka grabbed the phone and texted, "Enough with the game. Stop playing and tell everyone that this is a joke."

"ASUKA, THIS IS NOT A GAME." Shinji texted on the holograms, showing that he saw the whole of Central Dogma and everyone present. "THIS IS MY CHOICE. YOU AND FATHER MADE IT EASY FOR ME TO DO THIS."

"NERV will tell the people to cease and desist, that this is unnecessary,"she texted.

"THAT WILL ONLY DO ONE THING: MAKE NERV A CONTROL FREAK."Shinji had responded. "YOU'D BE TAKING AWAY PEOPLE'S FREE WILL AND THEIR RIGHT TO DECIDE. THAT WOULD BE WHERE WE DIFFER, FOR I AM MERELY GIVING THE PEOPLE THE CHOICE. THEY CAN DECLINE OR RETURN TO EARTH WHENEVER THEY CHOOSE."

And with that text, the conversation ended.

"At least he's giving the people a choice," said Maya.

"Yeah," Hyuga agreed with her.

-x-

He didn't want to be a dictator or some sort of tyrant. He didn't want to be selective as much as certain people were, either, but he did want to keep the good people separate from the bad. However, as much as it seemed unlikely, his aunt and uncle on his mother's side were included in the list of bad people when the space station's supercomputers had evaluated them; he wasn't even sure how they were really awful, aside from their neglect.

Beep. The table-sized touchscreen indicated that one of the ships he sent to Tokyo-3 was filled with the people that were invited, and he pressed a button on the screen and permitted the ship to return to the station with the new arrivals.

He was actually looking forward to seeing Toji and Kensuke.

-x-

"…This cannot be, Ikari!" SEELE 01 told Gendo during the new meeting.

"He's divided the planet's population into two factions, those that will be granted sanctuary on this massive space station and who won't be," added SEELE 06.

"If this hinders our plans for the Instrumentality Project, Ikari, you will be the one to pay for this," SEELE 11 told him.

"NERV will handle this," Gendo told them.

"See to that NERV does, Ikari," SEELE 01 enforced.

-x-

"…Oh, my God," went Toji and Sakura's father, stepping inside their new apartment on the space station, seeing that it had been nicely furnished and had a lived in feeling because it reminded them of their previous dwelling, but made larger.

"This place is much bigger than our previous house," said Sakura.

Suddenly, an android came out of the hallway and stood in front of them.

Sakura hid behind Toji.

"How may I be of service to you?" The android asked them.

"Uh, could you contact Shinji Ikari to let him know that we're here?" Toji asked it.

"Contacting Shinji Ikari," it responded, sounding like a ringing phone. "While contact is in-progress, shall I direct your sister to the Rejuvenation Cradle?"

"Rejuvenation Cradle?" Their grandfather questioned. "What is that?"

The android led them to a room that was located near where Sakura's room was, and showed them a large, bed-like device that looked like it was from a hospital's research division and was decorated with oriental figurines on its sides and front.

"Wow," Sakura expressed, walking carefully over to it. "What do we do with it?"

"You lie on it," the android answered her, "and it scans your body for any and all injuries or ailments, and eliminates them."

"You mean, this bed heals?" Toji gasped, looking at it.

Sakura decided to give it a try and climbed onto it and lied down. She and the others watched as the device lit up beneath her and a scanner above her rotated from the left side to the right and vice versa.

"Scanning for ailments," a computerized, female voice uttered out within the cradle. "Ailments detected. Begin revitalization process."

Sakura then felt like somebody had plunged her into a hot bath. Her bones felt like sponges and her skin felt like silk. Then, just as soon as this good feeling came, it left, and she felt…like she'd been before she was hospitalized.

"Ailments eliminated," the computerized voice uttered, and Sakura got off the cradle, standing firmly on her legs.

"How do you feel, Sakura?" Her grandfather asked her.

"Good as new," she expressed, raising her hands up and flexing her fingers.

To be continued…

A/N: Here's chapter three. What do you think so far? You'll have to PM me because the review system doesn't work right now.


	4. Defense

Creation began on 01-05-16

Creation ended on 02-11-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise: Defense

Misato was outraged by Commander Ikari's decision to have an N² missile fired at Shinji's space station, despite the fact that there were already civilians present on it. As she saw the missile being fired and heading towards the station, she hoped that Shinji would know what to do.

Even Asuka and Rei were displeased by the commander's decision; as much as Asuka didn't like him most of the time (all the time), she didn't desire his death and Rei didn't feel that this was logical in any way that worked to resolve anything.

-x-

Shinji, after his distant conversation with Toji, who wanted to thank him for his new residence and having access to a medical bed that fixed his sister better than the hospital ever could, took notice of a missile heading towards his space station, and sighed at this cruelty being displayed.

"Initiate the Invisible Guardian Protocol," he uttered in a headset with a microphone.

On his touchscreen table, the missile that was about to make contact with a small portion of his new residence suddenly atomized into space dust, leaving nothing to harm the people. And it was nothing he needed to tell them about to excite panic.

 _I wonder who would want to fire a missile at this space station,_ he thought, hoping to find who had the authorization to launch a missile derived from non-nuclear technology.

-x-

"…The missile never made contact with the Third Child's space station," went Ritsuko to Gendo. "It was quickly atomized before it could even detonate."

"Ikari, this isn't the way to convince the Third Child to return," Fuyutsuki told him. "He may see this as an unprovoked attempt on his life and the people already there. And elsewhere, people that received the invite to relocate to the station are preparing to leave the other parts of the country."

"He left without authorization, and he's committing treason against NERV by stating that we can't protect the people."

 _Except what Instrumentality will do won't necessarily save anyone, Ikari,_ thought Fuyutsuki.

 _We're not exactly in the business of protecting the people, anyway,_ thought Ritsuko.

-x-

The majority of Tokyo-3 had been reduced to an empty, high-tech version of a ghost town. The schools had been closed down, the skyscrapers that served as office buildings had been abandoned, and even the banks had been cleared out. This caused a crippling blow to those that were left that didn't receive an invite that hailed from the city's red light districts, where flesh was bartered away more than cash was.

"Three days of this, and we get left behind!" A man shouted that was sitting on some steps. "How come we didn't get an invite?!"

"Word is that this kid that inherited the space station from a dead relative had us evaluated," a woman explained. "He was able to separate the good people from the ones with less-than-good records or criminal backgrounds."

"Hey, I served my time for that heist I did eight years ago."

"It doesn't matter. You're an ex-con, and that status will follow you to your grave."

"What about you? Why didn't you get invited?"

"Prostitution."

"Damn."

"The less people that can cause problems up there, the less problems there are to resolve."

"What about this kid's father? Didn't he get an invite?"

"From what my sister's boyfriend found out, he wasn't invited, and neither were this boy's other relatives due to some past issues."

"So then, he's all alone up there, surrounded by people he barely even knows."

-x-

"…I'm surprised that this is your residence, Shinji," went Kensuke, having met up with Shinji and Toji shortly after having settled into his new residence with his father. "I mean, I never pictured you as the mansion type."

"It's actually where my ancestress lived before she died," Shinji told him, sitting out on the patio area where he and no doubt many others around got a good view of the Earth.

"It's really beautiful, Shinji," said Toji to him, seeing the vast beauty of the urban environment with its zen-like architecture. "It's…it's so heavenly up here."

"Thanks."

"Tea, gentlemen?" The android that resided in Shinji's home questioned, showing up with a tray occupied by three cups of tea and a teapot.

"Thank you," Shinji praised him, accepting a cup from him. "Tea, anyone?"

Toji and Kensuke accepted and gave thanks.

"It was quite a shocker for my dad when we found the android in our new place," Kensuke told Shinji.

"Same here," Toji added.

"I'm finding out many things here that are full of surprises," Shinji told them. "It's a remarkable inheritance I have received, and I want to keep it safe from potential theft or destruction."

"Why would anyone want to destroy such a beautiful place like this?" Kensuke questioned.

"Earlier, I found a missile was heading towards here, but I resolved the issue and had the missile atomized before it ever came within two-hundred meters of any inch of it."

"Whoever wanted to try and harm this place must've been either blind, deaf, dumb or just crazy," suggested Toji.

"I do hope to find out later this evening, though," Shinji informed them.

-x-

"…Where's Rei?" Ritsuko asked Maya, standing in front of Unit-01 in the cages.

"She was supposed to show up for her synchronization test earlier, but never did," Maya answered her.

"I'm surprised that she didn't show up. Very well, then. Reschedule her for tomorrow."

-x-

Walking down the street, as most of the public transportation services were shut down, Rei, without even being told to, had left the Geo-Front to return to her apartment, which was starting to seem like a prison to her. She was hoping that she would get in contact with Shinji in due time to know if his offer to come live on the space station still stood, and since the majority of the people were being relocated to a new dwelling up in space. The last thing she heard was Shinji might go and relocate people from third world countries because they deserved a better life in a better setting. She didn't know anything about any of the people from less-developed areas, but she knew that they suffered mainly due to a lack of food and supplies, something that the money funding NERV could've resolved.

-x-

"So it was NERV that sent a missile to my space station," Shinji sighed, discovering that the paramilitary agency that shot a missile in a failed attempt to cause problems. "I won't sink to that man's level just because he tries something awful."

Suddenly, his desk showed him an attempt made by something called the MAGI to hack into whatever computers there were present on his space station.

"Well, that's just sad," he sighed again, and pressed a blue light on the touchscreen, and made the attempt at hacking reverse and relocate itself elsewhere. "The MAGI? NERV… What's next? An attempt to cause a power outage?"

-x-

"The MAGI attempt to hack the space station failed?" Gendo asked Ritsuko in his office.

"Yes, sir," she answered him; somehow, Shinji had reversed the MAGI's attempt to hack his space station and redirected it to hacking the other MAGI supercomputers across the planet. "The Third Child has stopped two attempts on his new residence, but has made no attempt to retaliate on us."

"Most likely, he doesn't want to fight," went Fuyutsuki to them. "This isn't necessary, Ikari. All we're doing is provoking him."

"He provoked NERV first," Gendo retorted.

"Actually, you and the Second Child provoked him into leaving after pressuring him into relinquishing his inheritance." Fuyutsuki clarified, which earned him a glare from both Gendo and Ritsuko.

-x-

Three more days went back, and the majority of the Japanese nation had been left almost empty (sans its evaluated individuals and some of the NERV-affiliated people that hadn't shown up to be relocated to his space station), Shinji had taken to trying to relocate the people from the third world countries so that they could have a better life. He had seen several images of what these people looked like and what resources they had that were limited. There had been no denial that he had been left horrified, repulsed and disgusted by how most of the people from these places didn't even have access to clean water to drink or died before their fifth birthday due to a lack of food, or the worst being that many of them didn't even have access to medical resources. Sometimes, he wondered if these places were any worse than certain aspects of certain cultures that had people prefer boys over girls.

 _Ayanami!_ He thought, realizing that he had forgotten about the albino girl he had offered a place on his space station. _I had forgotten about her! I gotta go get her!_

He got up from the desk and ran out of the room to where the living room was in his home. During his time of exploring his new residence, he found that the mansion was large enough for at least forty people (and it wasn't even an apartment building)! And being built from a combination of hardwood and dense, metallic materials and given an impressive, western-style exterior with some Zen-themed architecture thrown into it like many of the other buildings seeded throughout the station's urban areas, it was quite a sight to behold and an even greater thing to live in. In the center of the living room was a blue, glowing circle that he learned could be used to take him back to Earth for a limited time. The limit set by him, either for an hour or until he found something or someone he was going to look for, and then be returned to the station. In front of the circle was another touchscreen on the floor where he could set the limit.

" _Find Ayanami, Rei,"_ he thought, typing the limit in, _"then return once she gives her answer on whether to come or stay."_

When he set the limit, he stood in the circle, and it glowed brightly. He was bathed in blue light, which then changed to green…and then red. He felt the same experience from when he first arrived, only this time, it was to return to the Earth and hopefully return with another person that he had a complex relationship with. As the light faded, he was no longer inside his home…and was now outside on the roof of Misato's building.

"Feels like I've been gone for a long time," he sighed. "I can use the limit to my advantage and speak with Misato."

He went down to the front door of Misato's apartment and knocked on the door before he made the choice to use his key. When no response came, he let himself inside, finding the place empty. Except for the only animal that resided within its habitat.

"Hey, Pen-Pen," he greeted the penguin.

"Squawk," the penguin responded.

Shinji looked around his old room and saw his NERV-issued phone on the desk.

"Might as well try calling her," he uttered, picking the phone up and calling Misato from his contact list. "Hopefully, she'll speak with me."

-x-

Even though there hadn't been any Angel attacks since Shinji and most of Tokyo-3 and Japan had been vacated, there was still the requirement for synchronization testing. And this was something Misato had lost much of her interest in.

Ring, ring! She felt her phone ring and vibrate in her coat and took it out, finding the name of the caller to be quite a shocker.

"Shinji?" She gasped, which caught Ritsuko's attention, and pressed the button to receive his call to her. "Hello?"

"Hello, Misato," she heard Shinji's voice. "How are you doing?"

"Fine. I'm…I'm doing fine. How are you doing?"

"I spent much of my time trying to help people, many of whom I don't even know, that I forgot about Ayanami. So I came back to see her, but I also needed to see how you were doing."

"Well, where are you right now?"

"Maybe it's better if I don't say. It's not that I don't trust you. I just don't trust that man trying something. I don't think Pen-Pen's eaten today, so I'm setting his fish out."

And with that, Misato found that Shinji was at her apartment. But she kept quiet about it. She hung up and put her phone back into her pocket.

"Did he say where he was?" Ritsuko asked her.

"No," she lied. "He doesn't want NERV or his father to find him."

Within the testing plug, Asuka continued with the synchronization test.

-x-

After making sure that Pen-Pen was fed, Shinji left Misato's apartment and walked down the streets towards Ayanami's apartment. With the relocation of many people, the very place was more quiet than it had ever been before, giving it almost a tranquil feeling for such a disordered setting.

 _I can't believe I had forgotten about her when I relocated everyone else,_ he thought, walking up the stairs. _She deserves better._

He stopped at her door and knocked on it, hoping she would answer. He didn't hear anything for a full minute, but then the sound of footsteps came…and the door opened up, revealing the bluenette girl.

"Ayanami," he greeted, rather weakly, sheepishly.

"Ikari-Kun," she responded. "How have you been?"

"I've been okay. How have you been?"

"I have been…well."

"I'm sorry, Ayanami. I was trying to help so many people that I forgot about you. I want to make up for my negligence."

Rei looked up at the night sky. Despite the darkness that blanketed the sky, she could still see the space station that was illuminated by the moonlight and its own internal UV system.

"I want you to come with me to the space station," Shinji had offered her.

-x-

"…Where is Rei?" Gendo asked Ritsuko the next day, as they both noticed that the First Child hadn't shown up at NERV.

"Nobody that is still here has seen her," she explained.

"Has Section Two reported anything from her apartment?"

"Nobody was watching her apartment last night."

-x-

Misato suspected that Rei had gone back to the space station with Shinji last night, since the First Child hadn't been seen so far today. While this action may have crippled the personnel further with only Asuka as the remaining Eva pilot, she did want Rei to have a future like all the other people that had been relocated.

 _I should've asked him to take Pen-Pen with him,_ she thought, and realized something else. _Shinji may still have his phone._

She took out her phone and decided to try texting him.

-x-

Rather than have her live her live alone when he returned with her, Shinji asked Rei to live with him at his home. He showed her around and even took her to one of the urban parks where dozens of kids were playing without a care in the world, along with several adults looking up at the artificial sky to gaze at the stars and the Earth.

"It's so…beautiful," she expressed, never thinking that the sight of the Earth could be enchanting.

A large, blue ball rolled over towards the two on the grass, and Rei spotted a little girl coming over to get it. She kicked the ball over to the girl and she picked it up and ran back towards some other kids. When she turned to face Shinji, she saw him on a phone texting.

-x-

"…I can't believe that idiot!" Asuka yelled in the hall when Misato informed her of Rei's whereabouts. "He shows up when we're not at home and picks up the First Child? Who does he think he is, anyway?!"

When Gendo found out that Rei had been relocated to the space station, he lost it and wanted to destroy the space station as retribution towards his son's petulance.

 _Except an attack was already tried on the space station with no success,_ thought Ritsuko, who had to keep away from Gendo until he had calmed down. _Missiles don't work. The MAGI couldn't do anything. Short of trying to get an Eva up there to try something, we might as well give up._

One of the other things she didn't want to believe that Emperor of Japan had been one of the evaluated people to be relocated to the space station where, like any other official of any world governments, he was just another person in a new place that was new and much greater than the country he had grown up in. In her mind, it seemed the Third Child, simply because he had inherited the place from a long-dead relative that left it all to him, was the governing authority; he was the official, the mayor, the president, the emperor.

"I need a long holiday," she uttered to herself.

To be continued…

A/N: Anyone else feel that because the space station is owned by Shinji, he's the only governing authority for it and its new residents?


	5. Mortal Torment

Creation began on 02-11-16

Creation ended on 04-10-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Potential Paradise: Mortal Torment

NERV had been reduced to a skeleton crew. With the majority of the Tokyo-3 population and the whole of Japan's population on the space station and those left either being those that were evaluated but didn't want to leave the planet…and those that were evaluated and deemed unfit to live on the station, the paramilitary agency had lost the bulk of its personnel.

"I'm starting to wonder why you didn't go up there, Kaji," went Misato, who suspected that her old flame had gotten an evaluation response from Shinji through his phone or tablet.

"That's a funny story," he responded to her. "I didn't check my phone or tablet for any messages."

"So then, you have no idea if you were eligible or not to go live up there. I checked my phone, and I could go up there if I chose to."

As they were up on the bridge in Central Dogma, their conversation wasn't much to gossip on, as there were very few personnel left.

"And yet, you're still here," Kaji told her. "Why is that?"

"There are still Angels out there."

"But there's hardly anyone left to protect. Tokyo-3 has been emptied of its good people and the people left operate the city's red-light district, and now they're thinking of leaving because there's no way for them to make their living, anymore. Unless NERV's protecting of mankind is just protecting the criminals and corrupt governments, then I wouldn't count of there being much acceptance from anyone when it comes to facing the Angels. Maybe relocating to the space station was the better choice. I mean, it is the lesser of two choices when it comes to those that view this as a war. You can either fight an enemy you barely understand…or you can get away and relocate to some place the enemy may be unable to go."

"But that's no different from admitting defeat, Kaji."

"Not many people see it that way. Look at the Earth today. Before the space station showed up and we discovered that it was part of an inheritance Shinji was to receive from a deceased relative, the planet isn't as it was over a decade ago. Most of the planet's underwater, and some of the landmasses left are either decimated or unlivable for people, and most of the necessary animal and plant species we need to survive are gone. It was bad enough before the Second Impact, but after it, things just got worse. Suddenly, a colossal space station made from a colossal planet not so different from Earth, except for being clean of any radiation poisoning and immense devastation."

"You make it sound as though living up there is the best way to get away from any thoughts of war and crime, you goof."

"Crime, war, plague, famine. If you live up there, the only thing you probably need to fear…is just dying from natural causes, such as old age. Who knows? Some people up there are probably getting married right now."

As the former couple from college continued to conversed, Ritsuko was trying to get the MAGI to work on trying to hack the supercomputers on the space station, but her attempts to get them to stop trying to hack one another was taking longer than expected. In addition, the faux-blond discovered that ships from the space station had departed third world areas with people less fortunate than those from developed areas with medical resources and were being relocated to the station. She couldn't believe how the Third Child was convincing himself that he was actually saving people, even if the place was larger than any other planet in the solar system.

 _There's no guarantee that the Angels won't attack that place if they want to,_ she thought.

-x-

It was the first time that Rei ever felt like she could do anything she wanted…but had no reason to do anything…besides soak in the water of her hot bath. The bathroom of Shinji's home was probably the size of her former residence (based on the fact that the tub itself was about the size of her bedroom), and adorned with marbled angels and a waterfall, filling the room up with steam. It was so peaceful, something that the albino girl didn't understand quite well because of her past as an Eva pilot. Ever since she could remember, it was always piloting the Eva and facing the Angels, but now she was somewhere the Angels weren't around…and there were no Evas needed to protect anyone from harm.

 _Ikari-Kun is helping the people,_ she thought, deciding to get out of the bath now. _Here, there's no reason to fight. There's no need for the Evas. No need…for anything I ever knew._

Drying off and putting on a blue dress with a yellow ribbon (Shinji had been surprised when she found the dress at a clothing store close by in the urban area they lived in), the girl left the bathroom and found Shinji asleep at his ancestress' desk, a holographic projection of the space station near the Earth and moon; apparently, the boy was monitoring for any external assaults.

When she approached his desk, she found several folders on the large, touchscreen portion of it with several designations. One such folder read, _"Guard Legion"_ , while another read, _"No Casualties"_.

 _Is he trying to find a way to ensure the people here aren't harmed?_ She wondered, but that meant that Commander Ikari…was deliberately, purposely, trying to cause his son trouble because he wouldn't transfer his inheritance over to NERV…and because he was deemed unfit to live on the space station. _Commander Ikari should be informed…but I don't want to upset Ikari-Kun._

-x-

"…Ikari, this has gone too far," said SEELE 05 to Gendo in the next meeting with the council.

"With the majority of the planet's population having been relocated to the space station, all that's left are those with criminal records or people that were ordered not to relocate!" SEELE 11 added. "Even those from third world countries have been relocated, leaving those territories without a single person!"

"Word got out yesterday that even the President of the United States was evaluated to live on the space station," went SEELE 03, "and he packed the White House and left!"

"With the loss of the bulk of the population, we have lost the bulk of our manpower," SEELE 08 expressed, "and this is your fault, Ikari. Yours and the Third Child's!"

"This was an unexpected occurrence," Gendo responded.

"That's your excuse, Ikari," went SEELE 01. "The space station was said to not interfere with our scenario, which required the population to be sacrificed for the Instrumentality Project! With the loss of more than half the population, our scenario has become compromised! What of the Dummy System, Ikari? Has that been met with any progress?"

Gendo merely told the council that the Dummy System was still in development; he couldn't tell them that the system was at a standstill because the First Child had been relocated to the space station.

"Attempt a reasonable negotiation with the Third Child, Ikari," SEELE 01 ordered Gendo. "Either he relinquishes his space station and sends the people back to the planet…or we will take it from him through force, even if it means destroying it, regardless of its value."

Gendo obliged that he would do this.

-x-

Ring! Shinji awoke to the sounds of a phone ringing, and recalled that he still had his NERV-issued cell phone; why he chose to take it back with him, he was unsure.

"Ugh…who's calling me?" He wondered, taking out his phone and seeing that it was Misato. "Why'd she be calling at a time like this?"

He accepted the call and uttered, "Hello?"

"Shinji…" He heard Misato say, but was cut off by something.

"Listen to me, Third Child," he heard his father say over the phone. "This has gone far enough, what you're doing."

"Of all the people," he sighed. "What exactly is it that I'm doing? I'm not running drugs or weapons. I'm not pimping anyone. So what is it that I'm doing?"

"You've been relocating people off the planet without any authorization," Gendo told him. "These are serious offenses that add up to human trafficking."

"Human trafficking? I'm not profiting off bringing people to live up here. I haven't asked for any money from anyone that now resides here. How exactly is what I'm doing constitute as human trafficking? I don't put a price tag on anyone's lives."

"Enough with your childish antics. You are to relinquish your space station and return everyone to their countries immediately."

"I'm not holding anyone prisoner up here. They can return to Earth anytime they wish. They're good people. I'd be surprised if they chose not to return to Earth because of how nice it is here. There's no pollution, no crime, no war, no population problems. It's like, for the first time in a long time, the people can be happy. Why would I want to take this away from any of them?"

"You will do as you're ordered to, Third Child."

Shinji frowned at this form of disrespect to his sense of reason, and decided to say what had just come to mind.

"What should happen if I refuse to listen to you? I'm up here…and you're down there. Exactly what should happen if I refuse to listen to you?"

"If you refuse, then your space station will be taken by force, even if that means destroying it."

And here it was that he found another reason to not want to return to Earth. His own father, who wasn't even being a father, who probably didn't even know how to be one, was threatening him.

"Are you threatening me…Gendo?" He asked him, letting his tone show that he was not being social.

"I am warning you," Gendo told him. "Relinquish your space station to NERV, return those people to their countries…or there will be dire consequences. For you and them."

"Well, returning the people to their countries isn't up to me," Shinji sighed. "I mean, it is, but I'd rather hear from them if they want to return to Earth. A woman from one of the third world countries recently had a baby girl up here. Eh-heh-heh. She actually said something I didn't expect to hear at all. She called her daughter a Shinjian. I didn't understand what that meant until Kensuke told me. Shinjian means a person that lives up here on the space station. I'll spread the word that you threatened to cause problems for me if I didn't oblige, but whether they decide to return to Earth or not will be up to them. I won't force them to leave like how you forced me to pilot the Eva the day I met you after so many years of neglect."

He nearly hung up when Misato spoke up again.

"Shinji?" She asked him.

"Misato?" He responded.

"I am sorry about this?"

"Don't be. You didn't threaten me."

He then hung up, and put his head in his hands.

-x-

 _"Don't be,"_ Shinji's voice was heard in other inhabited parts of the space station. _"You didn't threaten me."_

And the worst part of it all…was that the people living in homes and apartments had access to the phone call that had been recorded without Shinji's knowledge.

-x-

"…So your old man threatened you?" Toji asked Shinji the next day when he showed up at his apartment. "How bad is this?"

"If I don't send everyone back to Earth and hand my space station over to him, there would be dire consequences for everyone here. I told him that nobody's a prisoner up here and that they can leave if they want. So…I gotta ask you this, Toji. Do you and your family want to return to Earth? And I won't force you if you say 'no'. I offered you this opportunity to live up here, and I won't take it back from you, no matter what."

"No way, man," Toji answered him. "It's so great up here. And I never got to thank you for that medical bed that treated my sister better than the hospital did. She's able to run around with the other kids like she never got hurt. Thanks again, Shinji. You're a really nice guy."

"Yeah, I've brushed up about those cradles. They're centuries ahead of anything the Earth currently has. And they cure today's incurable illnesses, too. They're allover the space station, even in the hospitals if the ones at your homes are too far away. I've actually considered sending some to Earth for the purpose of eliminating diseases. I just don't believe my father would ever accept that anything I do is something I want to do with my life."

As they were on the patio of Toji's home, Toji's father stepped out of the apartment and revealed that he had overheard their conversation.

"Personally, Mr. Ikari, I think your father's a complete prick," he told them. "How you two are related, I may never want to know. But you're a good man. You give the people a choice. And…it's so quiet here. So peaceful and beautiful. Tokyo-3 might've paled in comparison, but why return to a place like that where there's…all these attacks from these creatures that the media refuses to talk about? Being up here allows my kids to have a better chance at a better life."

"Thank you, sir," Shinji responded.

"Also, it's pretty much because of you, my son here has finally manned up and spoken to that girl from his class."

"Huh? You mean, the Class Rep?"

-x-

It had been three days since the threat was made against Shinji, and so far there had been no change in the population loss the Earth had experienced. The people had yet to be returned.

And then Misato's phone rang and she answered it.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Misato, it's Shinji," Shinji had called. "I need to ask you something before I ask to speak with that man. It's a serious question."

"Go ahead and ask me."

"It sickens me a little, but do you and Asuka want to live up here? You don't have to decide right now, but at least think about it."

"I'll ask her about it when I see her. What is it that you're going to say to your father?"

"Nothing he's gonna like?"

"That serious?"

"More or less."

Misato, who was in the hall of NERV when her phone rang, walked over to Commander Ikari's office and handed him the phone so that he could converse with his son.

"Have you decided to surrender, Third Child?" He asked Shinji.

"The name is Shinji Ikari, Gendo," Shinji responded, "and the answer's that the people up here don't want to leave…and I won't force them to go back to Earth against their will, either. And I'm not going to hand over my inheritance to you or NERV. The people are happy, and I will not take their happiness from them. I'm happy, and I will not let you take my happiness from me."

"You imbecile! We have no time for your selfishness!"

"That's because you don't have a clue about how to find happiness. I bet you never once took a vacation where all you should do is relax and think about nothing. All you seem to think about is work, which I can understand to a degree, but someone who puts his work before his family, that's a disgrace and disappointment there. You say that people do nothing but hurt each other, but I've seen nobody up here try to hurt anyone else. Your belief is just that, it's your belief, and one I can't help but feel is because you're not a joyful person to be around. I actually did a background check on you yesterday…you give me a reason to be disgusted rather than disappointed with you. You were known for causing problems with others, and you push people away. That's depressing, even for you."

"Enough! You don't know what you're talking about! Now bring those people back down here or else!"

"I can't force them, and I won't force them. You want them to return, you have to speak with them yourself and explain why you want them to give up their happier lives. In the meantime, I have my priorities I must tend to. This might be the last time I ever speak with you. Good riddance."

Shinji hung up, and Gendo lost it.

"Aaaurgh!" He yelled out, throwing Misato's phone away.

She quickly grabbed her tossed phone and ran out of the office. Whatever Shinji had said to him was enough to enrage him.

-x-

Setting his phone down, Shinji couldn't believe that he had stood up to his father again. In front of him was Ayanami, who had heard the entire conversation at his request; he wanted to hear from her what her choice would be afterward because while everyone else gave their choice on not returning to the planet, he didn't have her choice yet.

"I am sorry, Ayanami," he apologized to her.

"Don't be," she responded. "You gave the people a choice…and they chose…just like I've chosen. Nobody wants to leave…and I don't want to be reduced to piloting the Eva again and nothing else."

Shinji gave her a slight smile. Now, he just wanted to protect the people without risking their safety.

-x-

"…So the baka told his father that he wouldn't send the people back here?" Asuka asked Misato. "Does he not realize that he's gonna get them killed?"

"The people up there don't want to return," Misato told her. "He's even offered us the opportunity to live up there. I don't know about you, but I'm considering relocating."

"You, too, Misato?! Geez, why not just raise the white flag and tell the Angels we're giving up? I'm not walking away from dealing with them."

Before Misato could say anything there being no shame in turning away from conflict, the alarms went off, indicating that an Angel was approaching.

 _Dammit,_ she thought.

"About time," went Asuka.

They parted ways as the girl went to change into her plugsuit and get to Unit-02.

-x-

The holographic representation of the new Angel approaching Tokyo-3 didn't ease Shinji's spirits. While the majority of the planet's population had been relocated to the station, there were still some people that had been evaluated and were deemed fit to be relocated still on the planet.

"Asuka's not going to be able to beat this Angel," he thought, able to get an idea on how powerful this new Angel was.

It was bigger than an Eva, but not as big as the last Angel, roughly humanoid, with what looked rolled-up toilet paper for arms. Its core was exposed right on its front, but the holographics showed that its core's external form was protected by a membrane that could protect from extreme trauma. And he was certain that like some of the previous Angels, this one was capable of energy projection.

"Ikari-Kun," went Ayanami to him, reminding him that sh was in the room with him, "should we return and pilot the Eva?"

Shinji quickly regained his composure and responded, "No, Ayanami. I'll go back. I'll… It's gotta be me that goes back."

Beep! A message popped up on the desk, and the two noticed it was addressed to Shinji…from Senkensha Ikari.

"What?" Shinji questioned, seeing this as impossible.

He tapped on the message icon and it opened up into a voice message.

"There is a way for you to face the threat without feeling any pain, Shinji," the voice, exactly like that of Shinji's ancestress', spoke. "It's in the center of the space station, its core. Do what you have to do."

Along with the voice message was the exact location of what was supposed to be a way to deal with the Angel without feeling any pain.

He went with Rei down to the living room and put in the address of where he wanted to go on his space station and stood in the circle.

"Care to come with me, Ayanami?" He offered her.

"Yes," she answered him, and stepped into the circle beside him.

They were teleported to where they were looking to go, and found themselves in a part of the station that was more like an expansive, industrial warehouse, only cleaner and decorated with small trees and shrubs, as if to give the place a sense of harmony between the technological and the organic.

"Wow," Shinji expressed.

"It does look more welcoming than NERV does, doesn't it?" They heard a female voice, and Shinji recognized it from earlier.

Turning around, the two saw a woman that Shinji recognized as Senkensha, dressed in a green yukata.

"Are you…Senkensha Ikari?" He asked her.

"I am…and am not," she responded. "I'm a digital representation of your ancestress, right down to her emotions and final moments of life. You would refer to me as an AI or artificial intelligence, but derived from an actual person, not a computer program. Another way of describing me would be to say that I'm a series of DNA computers, a bit more superior to the MAGI supercomputers you've seen."

Shinji slowly raised his left hand up, bringing it to Senkensha…and feeling as though he were touching a person that simply wasn't supposed to be there, but was in a strange way.

"Advanced holographics," she told him, raising her right hand up to grasp his. "It was still in development at the time this space station was being built out of a salvaged planet, but the scientists managed to get their prototype holograms to include mass."

"Interactive holograms."

"That's right."

It felt like he was touching another person, but they were less than solid. Like water or silk, something that was tangible, but not like a person.

"This way," she told them, and led them down the large hall. "There are some things you need to know about that need to be resolved."

To be continued…

A/N: If you were given a choice to relinquish a life that gave you peace and happiness and return to a joyless existence, which would you choose?

But the Angel wasn't affected by the pallets or even the rockets fired at it.


End file.
